


shiver stitch

by cephea



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-16 00:36:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13042854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cephea/pseuds/cephea
Summary: it’s always a thousand stitches forward and a hundred back before ruby and you have any idea where they are. that’s just the kind of shop this is.(ruby and you run a boutique together, questionably. a very mundane magic au. third person pov.)





	shiver stitch

**Author's Note:**

> on the third day of christmas..
> 
> i get very sick and pull the ending to this story from roughly somewhere whereabouts my ass. this fic didn’t get nearly as much vetting from others as it probably should have, because i couldn’t stop writing at strange hours of the night, but i like the kind of thing it became.
> 
> to the recipient: i know you and i probably have a little too much fun acting like gremlins in the dark, and we probably shouldn’t be on a schedule where the only two times a day we talk are each other’s 2 - 5 am, but you bring me so much joy. amidst the constant flow of our mutual bullshit, thank you for always caring about what i have to say. regretfully, i’m all ears for you, too.

 

 

\- - - - - - -

 

There’s a glimmering cascade of chiffon and brocade flowing from the center of the ceiling, whites and silvers that shift hues when tilted, silk with spiralling stories and hand-stitched florals. The palette is desaturated and delicate, and the way it’s strewn about so that it can be seen from any angle of the shop makes it feel like a blizzard. Ruby had stayed up all night painstakingly putting it on display after Hanamaru and Yohane had dropped off their last shipment last minute and disappeared out of town, and now she’s taking a nap in the back.

You doesn’t mind so much being in charge of counter alone. It’s winter, which means most of the orders coming through are all the same. The customers may be fantastical, and sometimes strange, but what they want to wear is nearly identical. At first, she’d been bored and disillusioned by her 18th draped shift dress with tinsel-roped trim, questioning the allure and glamour of sewing professionally. Now, though, amidst a throng of customers milling about during one of the busiest times of the year, just the edge of the kitsune’s annual party, the monotony is a comforting familiarity.

There are so many people crowded around - testing the textures and gleams of the fabric, flipping through the style portfolio, eyeing the dolled up mannequins - that You barely hears Leah come in over the din. Not that it would matter, anyway, because she immediately rushes the counter.

“Where’s Ruby.”

“It’s great to see you, too! How can I help you today?”

Leah scowls.

“I don’t need you to take my order, I need to talk to-“

“What do you think will happen if the first thing you ask Ruby for when she comes out is a dress order,” You says, as honey-sweet as she can, beaming. Leah flinches, flattening her ears and pulling her arms in close to cross them.

“... I’m asking for a kimono anyway, so,” she mumbles, eyes to the service book on the counter and not on You.

“I can take commissions for Ruby, too. We’ve been doing this for long enough I know what she needs to ask for, and you wouldn’t be doing your fitting today regardless.”

“Yeah, but-“

“Don’t bully Leah too much,” Ruby says, stepping out from the back, still wiping her face with a washcloth blearily.

“She’s causing a fuss.”

“I am not!”

Ruby sits down at the stool next to You and slides the book closer, and smiles up at Leah.

“What would you like to wear?”

You puts her chin in her hand to watch. Leah’s body language always changes the moment Ruby’s got eyes on her, eager and more open, almost friendly. It’s obvious to You why she’s coming in here, and it’s certainly not that there’s a lack of kitsune tailors with available slots.

“.... Not really winter…” she hears Ruby say distantly, and tunes back in to the conversation.

“I don’t care!” Leah says, just too loud and too mean, and suddenly the whole shop is staring at her. She starts shrinking like melted ice.

“It’s fine, right?” You says, hoping she guessed the conversation somewhat close to correct. Leah bothers to look like she hates You slightly less, so she’s probably close.

“It’s not like I can’t do it, but…” Ruby lifts the pen to her lip thoughtfully, and Leah’s so close to the counter she’s almost falling over it.

“But?”

“It’s just… Are you sure you want to go to the party standing out?”

Leah freezes. You guesses she probably hadn’t considered the idea that wearing a non-standard colour would be even more apparent when the standard colour was gray. She sets her shoulders though, her tail flicking agitatedly, her low voice rasping.

“.. I-it’s fine! I’ll do it! I don’t care, I wanna wear yellow and pink! Wait,” she pauses, looking around the room confusedly, “do you guys even… Like…”

“Have other colours?” You asks cheerfully, “they’re in the back.”

“Do you still want a winter print?”

“Uhhhh,” and she’s really floundering. She didn’t think this out before coming at all. You rolls her eyes and comes to the rescue.

“I’m sure Leah would like it just fine if you picked the motif, Ruby.”

Leah nods her head vigorously and Ruby sketches down her notes with a smile.

 

\- - - - - - -

 

Ruby ties off the thread of the hem, whispering the edge of it sealed. It’s the only magic she ever managed to learn, but she’s done it so many countless times that it fades away without any hassle. The garment itself is done until fitting, but it’s for a repeat customer, so she’s not very concerned.

Her neck and shoulders have gone stiff, and she’s not sure she can feel her feet anymore, so she gets up to stretch. You is doubled over a rolled hem on an evening gown with three layers of circle skirt, and just looking at it makes Ruby kind of dizzy, so she heads over to the kitchen instead. She steps as carefully as possible over the mountains of projects rising in every corner of the sitting room.

“Do you want anything to eat?”

“What time is it?”

“Hmm… I don’t know. Let me check,” and Ruby looks over to timer across the oven. She immediately regrets it and grimaces, “it’s… Past 10 pm.”

“Are you serious?!”

“Is that a yes on food?”

“Do we still have leftover noodles? Kanan was supposed to call soon, and I don’t want to miss it.”

“... We could try calling some more in?”  
  
You groans.

“Yeah, I guess… Can you give me a hand hanging all this up?”

“Yes, just give me a moment to order food!”

Ruby leans against the wall, ordering from their favourite takeout restaurant through their website, and walks out into the main shop. In lieu of a bell at the entrance, there’s a chain of hollow seashells that clink and twirl. Outside is snow, which isn’t quite right, so she untwists the shells until she sees the city through the window instead.

When she makes it back into the half of the building they live in, You has begun doing a series of stretches that make her look like she’s made of rubber. Ruby pulls the clothing rack of out the storage room and You hands her half a stack of post it notes and some safety pins.

Sorting the clothing is always the most satisfying part of the day. Slowly the heaps of fabric abandoned to the floor get hung up, and Ruby labels them as You does a pass over them with her hands. You’s magic is as flexible as she is, and as each garment gets brushed past, dust drops breezily back to the floor, and wrinkles and folds in the fabric smooth.

The last thing left out is the formal kimono for Leah, and Ruby folds it delicately to place on top of the table. When she looks up, You’s watching her with a shark’s grin. She sighs.

“I know what you’re going to ask-“

“Then?”

Ruby folds her hands in lap as she sits, twisting her fingers slowly.

“I don’t know.”

You lets out an exasperated bark and collapses next to her at the table.

“That’s no fun at all, Ruby.”

“Sorry?”

You leans over onto the table tiredly, resting in her chin in her hand. It’s the one thing Ruby can always expect from her.

“I can’t always…. Tell.”

“If you like g-“

“If I could like someone!” Ruby finishes in a rush, and jumps to her feet when her phone goes off with the delivery call.

“How is your luck always that good,” You whines. Ruby shoots her an apologetic look as she heads to the front door.

When she comes back with food, You has placed a giant orb barely above the wood grain, and every time Kanan’s voice drifts out of it, it pulses pearlescent and soft. Ruby places You’s food next to her and heads to the bedroom to keep working on Leah’s embroidery.

 

\- - - - - - -

 

You is behind on fitting appointments, but not so much so that she thinks she can’t catch up. The pair of oni bickering loudly at the front of the store isn’t helping.

“Welcome! How can I help you?” You shouts, hoping they hear her over the rest of the noise in the shop. One of them grins and the other glares.

“Is it too late to start an order,” the grumpy one says, pointing at a page in the stylebook that it is definitely too late to start an order for.

“If this is for the kitsune event-“

“It is!”

You winces.

“I’m so sorry-“

“Just for her, then,” the grumpy one says, jabbing a thumb at the girl in question.

“Hey, that’s not fair! I want you to be pretty, too!”

“Hah! I’m already beautiful, no need to wor- aaggHHH!”

A human You has worked with before has walked up behind her and yanked her into a hug. Within seconds the other oni jumps in, and they all three nearly go flying into the trim rack.

“These two always have terrible timing, so we’re actually here to pick up an order I made a couple weeks ago, not to place one.”

“That’s amazing! How did you know?!”

“How did you know our sizes is a better question.”

“We’re married, dear.”

While this sort of thing doesn’t usually bother her, it’s been a long time since You has gotten to see her own wife, and she twists at her wedding band anxiously. Grumpy notices immediately and shoves them all off to start paying. You thanks her and takes the chance to breathe in the storage room looking for which garments are the right ones.

She must’ve taken a bit too long, because shortly after, Ruby comes by and gently takes the order slip from her hands and bundles it up to take back to the front. When it’s lunch break, and the noise has finally trailed off and out, Ruby brings her a boxed lunch.

“This is not our lunch container, Ruby!” You says, forcing her mood back up.

“Why would I pack us lunch when we live here?”

“I don’t know… You do a lot of strangely proper stuff I don’t get. Did Leah bring it?”

Ruby stills a little, but she nods her head slowly.

“Nothing strange I ever do would involve creating extra dishes,” Ruby says, concern coating her voice, and that’s how You knows she really is having an off day. There are few things Ruby hates more than dish soap.

“Sorry, I’m just.”

“I don’t mind,” and she looks like she means it, “the one usually hiding in the back to break down emotionally is me, so it’s okay if you take a shift every once in awhile.”

You picks around at her food, pushing it with her chopsticks even though it tastes great and she knows she’s hungry. The time drifts off without her, because Ruby is soon setting her empty dishes aside and digging in the back for something.

It’s a silver gift box, as You learns when it promptly gets pushed into her lap.

“What’s this all about?”

Ruby smiles secretively, and You knows she’s not going to get anything else out of her, so she pulls off the lid. Inside is the kind of party dress that inspired her to work in fashion instead of costuming.

“It’s not very good,” Ruby starts, “my excuse is trying to match the limited colour palette, but it’s probably mostly that I don’t have much practice making dresses.”

“It’s gorgeous?!”

“I’m glad.”

“I don’t get it, though. We always stay back and watch shitty movies to recharge?”

“Kanan called me and asked for help,” Ruby admits, and You’s heart swells so fast it hurts. She can’t think of anything to say.

“Ruby-“

“Looks like you’ll be off to the ball instead, Cinderella!”

 

\- - - - - - -

 

When the rush of winter has finally pulled into its hushed, quiet end, what’s left of the fabric bolts is carefully wrapped and settled into a cart. Some of the remnants can be recycled; sheer, soft fabrics work just as well transitioning to spring, and anything with no distinguishable characteristics can be brought back out in the next year.

The rest, though - the patterns with zodiac motifs, the custom prints, the hand-dyed gradients by customer height - can’t be used again. In winter it feels the most melancholy, though there’s a sadness and a longing to all of the fabric they bury in deep chests and worn armoires in every season. Neither one of them has ever been any good at throwing anything away.

Ruby has just finished sorting and folding the fabric, neatly pinned edges on every bolt, when someone steps in through the door. She turns around the corner, broom in hand.

“I’m so sorry, we’re closed for the evening-“

It’s Leah.

“Ah, sorry, I just. Uh.”

Leah’s pulling at the edges of her sleeves, long nails filed clean and clear, and Ruby almost wants to swat her for picking at the fabric.

It looks exactly like what Ruby wanted on her. The worst part of embroidering magenta and violet flowers dripping down in spirals, tiny iridescent centers flickering even in the moonlight, is seeing how wonderful it looks. Knowing she’s going to put herself through it all over again.

“Shouldn’t you be at the party?”

“... Heard you weren’t going, so.”

Ruby laughs, and it echoes across the empty storefront.

“Of course not! It’s a romantic event, so I always end up staying home.”

Leah’s clenched her fists so tightly the seams are beginning to pull. Her mouth is taut, ears flat back against the way she’s twisted her hair into a bun.

“... I usually go,” she grits out.

“Most of the kitsune do, right?”

She nods sharply, but doesn’t meet Ruby’s eyes, gaze darting past her across the walls.

“Leah?”

“...Yeah?”

“Why are you here?”

Leah flinches, but she lets go of the fabric bunched in her palms, and straightens out.

“I didn’t wanna go if you weren’t gonna be there, but,” she steps a little closer, eyes downcast but finally on Ruby, “it’d be a waste not to wear it after you made it for me.”

“Has anyone else seen you yet?”

“Uh.”

“Did you come straight here after getting dressed?”

“Yeah, but why-“

Ruby steps the last bit into her, leaning the broom up against an empty rack, and gently unwinds the glittering cord on her obi. Leah goes scarlet, frozen in place.

“We’ll take this off,” Ruby hums, “and I’ll get you something else to wear so you can save this for some other time.”

Leah grabs her hands so tight she can feel the leftover sting from the cold.

“C-can I show you something?”

Ruby curls their hands together and smiles.

“I guess so!”

 

\- - - - - - -

 

Admittedly, as beautiful as this dress is, and as purposefully as she and Ruby had done her hair, You doesn’t feel much like a princess under the scrutiny of hundreds of the most important people she could ever possibly meet.

Or it might just be that Kanan isn’t here yet, and it’s beginning to make her sweat.

There are at least three musical groups performing across the clearing that forms the makeshift grand hall, lights tossed on trees like errant coats at the doorway, a hundred foods that have melded into a solitary, confusing smell.

It looks like it’d be a lot of fun if she weren’t alone.

“It’s a bit of a mess, isn’t it,” Kanan murmurs, slowly wrapping around from behind, resting her chin on You’s shoulder. The sound of her voice alone has You close to tears.

“You are so incredibly late,” she whines, leaning her weight as far back into Kanan as she can. Kanan laughs, perpetually wet hair dripping permanent stains on You’s dress, and kisses her on the cheek.

“I’ll be here for a year or so this time,” she says, the sound a comforting lull in the rush of noise all around them.

“Did you think that’d be enough to appease me,” You says, craning her neck to give Kanan her best fake glare.

Kanan laughs again, open and honest, and this may have been what You missed most. Feeling like she’s in the right place no matter where. Feeling like anything is possible no matter how hard. Feeling like the best version of herself just because her wife thinks she is.

“How about,” Kanan starts, fake considerate, “we skip out on the party and I make it up to you.”

 

\- - - - - - -

 

It’s a lake Leah wants to show her, boots crunching through a world blanketed in silent snow. Leah walks through it all, bare feet in her sandals, and Ruby wonders how much of the cold she really feels.

The reaction Leah wants is obvious.

The world like this, a watercolour wash of yearning blue in the moonlight, the stillness of the water as it breathes in careful ripples, the way the snow and ice build in glistening sculptures, temporarily crystalline. It’s a view meant to stun, and even when Ruby looks up to get away from it, the stars gleam back at her like upended loose glitter.

It’s not that it isn’t beautiful.

It’s that this kind of pristine wonder, the kind that feels like stepping into a dream, is what Ruby has made her every day. The feel of tightly-woven silks, the moment fabric slips loose from its draping, the transformation of something that fits for the very first time.

What’s new is looking at Leah’s face, ruddy and red but no worse for the wear, Leah’s snow-frizzed hair, Leah’s hands so rough from how much of her life she spends living.

What’s new is caring about that.

Leah catches her staring. She flinches, looking afraid and ashamed, and to Ruby it feels like time slows to a halt when she nervously bites at the corner of her lip. It only takes her a moment, it only ever takes her a moment, before she squares up. When Leah speaks, it’s with the raw, rough voice Ruby heard rush out of the woods the first time they ever met.

“I’m serious about this,” she says.

“I know,” Ruby says softly, feeling like it flits about over the snowbank, “and I’m really sorry that I’m not.”

Leah’s face darkens with hurt, but she doesn’t close off, and she doesn’t look away, and Ruby wishes there was ever a moment she could’ve been that brave.

“But,” she says, reaching out for Leah’s hand like it could crackle and break if she isn’t careful, “I’m serious about trying.”

When Leah moves forward to kiss her with fearful and awe-filled eyes, Ruby takes Leah’s face in her hands, and she lets herself enjoy it.

 

\- - - - - - -

 

Kanan has half-disappeared into the ocean, and You wades out over the soaked sand and rounded pebbles to swim out after her.

“Swimming when it’s this cold,” You says, shuddering through her shallow breaths, “might be a terrible idea.”

“It reminds me of the first day we met.”

“This is much better,” You says bluntly.

“It is?!”

“I was dying when we met!”

Kanan laughs, and it rings out clear and bright over the lapping waves.

“You might be dying now, too.”

“And who’s fault would that be?!” You says exasperatedly, pulling in to Kanan and burying her face in Kanan’s neck, “besides, every time I see you…”

“Every time you see me?”

You groans.

“Every time I see you is the best I’ve ever seen you!” You yells, and out in the distance, fish pop out over the crests in response. Kanan devolves into the kind of exuberant, breathy laughter that You first fell in love with.

“I worry sometimes,” Kanan admits, after her laughter has calmed, “that this isn’t going to work.”

“Kanan-“

“But the second I see you I forget why I was ever worried in the first place.”

You doesn’t really have anything to say. The ring on her left hand and the tips of her ears are the only part of her left that have any warmth.

“You know I’ve never had a problem with this water…” You trails off, failing to find a pretty way to put it, “stuff… But honestly!”

“Water stuff, huh.”

“You’re gone over a month and the first body of water you drag me too might as well just outright be an ice cube?! You couldn’t pick a nice spa?”

“We can’t have sex in a spa, You.”

“We’re not having sex here, either,” You says, as blunt as she knows how, but all it gets her is more laughter.

“I know, I know,” Kanan says, nuzzling into her, “just a little bit more, and then I’ll sleep in your silly human bed, promise.”

You watches the water, the way her own dress billows out around her like a jellyfish, the way Kanan’s long hair blends in and out of the current. She’ll never quite understand what Kanan gets from this, aimlessly floating off the coast, but she knows what it means to her when Kanan curls up next to her in bed, and she knows what it’s like just wanting to be held.

In a moment, Kanan will drift them back to shore, and carry her and her sopping Cinderella dress princess-style back to the shop. Ruby will irritably dump fluffy towels on them, and they’ll probably watch a bad movie with leftover takeout. She’ll wake up with her wife in her arms.

For now, she places a kiss on Kanan’s forehead.

“Welcome home.”

 

\- - - - - - -

 

 


End file.
